Electric fixture



A. R. BENTSEN 2,841,695

ELECTRIC FIXTURE July 1, 1958 Filed Dec. 15, 1956 fimew/ar fl mg 5AM 45% if W1 MM; 4 y 2 United States Patent ELECTRIC FIXTURE Arthur R.Bentsen, Providence, R. 1., assignor to General Electric Company, acorporation of New York Application December 13, 1956, Serial No.628,092

3 Claims. (Cl. 240-73) This invention relates to an electric fixture;more particularly, the invention relates to a night light with amanually controlled light shield or dimmer.

For a number of years low-wattage light fixtures used as night lightshave been available on the market. Normally, the fixture consists of aplug, switch, and lamp socket. Generally, there is no means provided forshading the light; and even where a shading means is present, no meansis provided for varying the quantity of light emitted.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a plug-in night lighthaving a manual means for adjusting the light emitted.

Another object of the invention is to provide a night light having arotatable light shield of circular configuration whereby a lightcrescent of any size up to full circle may be obtained.

Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the followingspecification taken in conjunction with the annexed drawing wherein Fig.l is a front view of the fixture of this invention; Fig. 2 is a cutawayrear view with the back plate pivoted to one side to reveal the interiorof the fixture; and Fig. 3 is an exploded view i1- lustrating theelements entering into the makeup of the fixture of this invention.

Briefly stated, in accordance with one of its aspects, the invention isdirected to an electric fixture comprising a plug-in base having aswitch and lamp socket connected thereto, a housing surrounding thespace adjacent the socket, the housing having a translucent exteriorlyconvex face, and a rotatable opaque light shield in the housingpositionable between a light in the socket and the translucent portionof the housing.

Referring to the drawing, the fixture comprises a housing conventionallycomposed of a molded phenolic composition-which in the preferred formillustrated has a circular face in which is mounted an exteriorly convextranslucent face or diffuser element 11. A base portion of the housing10 has mounted therein a socket 12 for a lamp 13. As best shown in Fig.3, the socket 12 is preferably integral with an attachment plug 14having conventional prongs 15 protruding outside the housing and acontrol switch including a manual control knob 16 protruding from thefront portion of the housing 10. The attachment plug 14 is preferably ofa type wherein the prongs may be rotated for vertical or horizontalalignment so as to accommodate the device to outlets having eitherhorizontal or vertical alignment. By incorporating the attachment plug,switch, and socket contacts in a single element, as shown in Fig. 3, itis not necessary to use wire in the electric circuit connecting theseelements and this has the effect of simplifying assembly of the fixture.

The translucent face 11 is conventionally formed of a plastic shellhaving an interior concave surface coextensive with the exterior convexsurface. These concave and convex surfaces of the face element 11 arespherical segments having approximately the same radius of curvature asa light shield 17 pivotally mounted. in the housing 10 with a manualrotating knob 18 extending through the top of the fixture. The lightshield 17 is substantially coaxial with the lamp socket 12 and thecenter of curvature of the light shield 17 is at a point approximatelyalong this same axis. Consequently, the light shield 17 has 360 rotationwithin the housing 10. As it passes the face element 11, it can makesliding contact with the concave surface thereof and the shield iscomposed of an opaque material to block off the transmission of lightthrough the portion of the face element 11 eclipsed by the shield 17. Ifdesired, the concave surface of the light shield 17 may be madereflecting, as by the vacuum deposition of a thin film of aluminum, togive a focusing effect to light emitted by the lamp 13 when the shield17 and face 11 are oppositely disposed with respect to the lamp 13. Withsuch a reflecting surface 19, the shield 17 not only provides a waxingand waning lunar effect but also a light concentrating effect to enablea wide degree of control of the light emitted from the fixture to beachieved.

The back of the fixture is sealed by a back plate 21 pivotally mountedby a single screw 22 (Fig. 2) to enable the back plate 21 to be readilypivoted to one side so that the lamp 13 may be quickly changed.

In assembling the parts illustrated in Fig. 3, the manual control knob18 of the shield 17 is inserted through a bearing collar 11a of thetranslucent face element 11, the knob 18 is inserted through the upperaperture of the control housing 10 with the bearing surface of theshield 17 in engagement with a bearing surface 10a of the housing 10 andthe translucent face element 11 is placed in engagement with the frontrim of the housing 10. The sides of the aperture through which thecontrol knob 18 of the shield 17 extends serve to hold the upper portionof the assembly in position and the bottom portion is maintained inposition when the attachment plugswitchsocket element engages a pair ofbosses 11b of the face element 11 at the time the attachmentplugswitch-socket element is placed in position in the housing 10 andmaintained there by the screw 22 and an additional attachment screw 23(Fig. 2). With this rather simple assembly completed, it is onlynecessary to insert a lamp 13 and swing the back plate 21 to seal offthe housing 10 to provide a device ready for use.

While the invention has been described with particular reference to aspecific embodiment thereof, it is obvious that many variations arepossible without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore,it is intended that the invention shall be limited in scope only as maybe necessitated by the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. An electric fixture comprising a housing with a translucentexteriorly convex face which is concave with respect to the interior ofsaid housing, exterior prongs for making contact with an electricoutlet, a lamp socket positioned inside said housing, a switch insidesaid housing with an exterior manual control, a circuit connecting saidlamp socket to said prongs through said switch, and an opaque lightshield within said housing, said light shield having a sphericalconfiguration substantially coextensive with the concave portion of saidtranslucent face and an exterior control knob for rotating said shieldaround its center of curvature to bring its convex surface into contactwith the concave surface of said translucent housing face.

2. An electric fixture as claimed in claim 1 wherein the concave surfaceof said shield is reflecting.

3. An electric fixture comprising a housing having a circulartranslucent exteriorly convex and interiorly concave face, a lamp socketwithin said housing positioned to permit a lamp mounted therein toradiate light through said face, a one-piece hemispherical light shieldcontoured to nest in abutting relationship with the interiorly concaveportion of said face, and means for 1'0- tatably mounting said lightshield within said housing, said means including a shaft terminating ina turning knob extending exteriorly of said housing, the axis of saidshaft passing through the spheroidal center of said hemisphere.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSFOREIGN PATENTS Germany June 8, 1942

